Oklahomans and agriculture are synonymous. In the minds of non-Oklahomans, we typify country to the extreme with our tobacco, improper slang with a twang, pickups, Wrangler jeans, and manure on our boots. A perfect locale for an Oklahoma neorealist film would be the feedlot, operant on the outskirts of small rural towns. Picture a crane or helicopter shot moving in on pens of separated cattle. The day could be either mid-day with a blazing sun or drearily cold and snowy. Both conditions would show the weather extremes Oklahoma is known to have. As cowboys outnumber land, many resort to working in a feedlot riding pens and “doctoring” cattle. Often ill-educated, they make their living in snow, ice, mud, and burning heat with the pungent aroma of cow manure infiltrating every pore in their body.

The location would provide a chance to capture the palpable grittiness of one of Oklahoma’s large industries. The rawness of the setting is more exaggerated in a winter setting--the cattle stand around in muddy pens with not a strand of grass to be seen. Conversely, with our notorious wind, a dusty feed yard can look like the Great Depression. The grain elevators, feed bunks, feed trucks, and continuous pens of cattle would make earthy, interesting shots.

In regard to the characters chosen for this film, an unhappy wife is required; conveniently, her husband is the boss and she, his secretary. This woman can’t stand the mundane, dirty, boring life she has chosen. To make matters worse, she is also a vegetarian. Her life is consumed by guilt when she has to weigh trucks containing cattle ready to be shipped out. But here comes her Marlboro Man! A feedlot cowboy has picked up a potential employee in town--one who is able to shoe all the cowboy’s horses. He has a bit of a checkered past, but that is of no concern to the frustrated wife. The action heats up between the two and soon the farrier is sending the boss to town for supplies, as this cool dude has no vehicle.

The boss must be done away with. In a brutal accident, he dies after a fall from a “safe” horse that the farrier has just shod. Horseback riding accidents are largely unplanned, but for our purposes the husband dies opportunely.




a day in the life of jon
response by BLONDE VS. BRUNETTE

If I were to write and direct a film which parallels the style of the Italian neo-realistic genre, my film would be based on the premises of precisely this: Jon, a twenty-two year old college student is struggling to find himself after a whirlwind of unfortunate events. After both of his parents tragically die within a year or so of each other, Jon moved to a small college town in rural Oklahoma. Jon toils everyday through his social, financial, and emotional problems looking for something to give him a sense of resolution and some peace.

The scene I will describe will be at Jon’s house and will be shot on location in a typical house of rural Oklahoma. The house is a rundown 1960’s duplex located directly across the street from the towering and brand new University housing. In the living room is a small rectangular table situated precisely in between and in front of two doorways, one leading to his bedroom and the other to the kitchen. There is hardly any furniture in the large living room except the small table, two chairs, and a twin bed with no sheets just to the right of the front door. Dirty orange shag carpet blankets the floor and only a poster of a dancing frog with the word “Olé” above, adorn the stained, off-white walls. The room is dark and the only light source comes from a hanging lamp just above the table. In the background to the left of the table is his bedroom, containing merely a twin bed covered by a single blanket and pillow on the back wall, and a desk, chair, and computer on the adjacent wall. To the right is the doorway to the kitchen framed by transparent amber molded plastic paneling which the kitchen light shines through. In the kitchen, dishes are piled high in the sink, covered with rotting food, and sprawled out on the countertop are various containers containing sad attempts at cooking and various concoctions gone wrong.

In this scene, Jon is shot center frame and all that can be seen is the table and the two doorways in the background. Jon sits at the table in his dimly lit and barren apartment in a dingy white t-shirt and brown corduroys cutting up magazines and newspapers for collages. Throughout the short scene Jon gets up only once to grab another Lost Lake from the refrigerator and goes back to his scraps. The mood is somber, forlorn, and reflects a sense of boredom. The way Jon is so intently cutting out images and shuffling through the clippings, the viewer gets a feeling as though he were consumed by this boredom--as though the way he is searching out the right piece parallels his reality. Furthermore, the barrenness of his apartment resembles the desolate plains of rural Oklahoma. This scene foreshadows the possibility that whatever Jon is looking for, he probably isn’t going to find it.



passion in stilly
response by MISS CHIARA SCURO

The assumption that Oklahomans are ignorant, dirty blue-collar workers is a far cry from reality. This "white-telephone" labeling is attached to mid-westerners from Americans all across the United States. People assume that there has to be a ratio of good and bad, wealthy and poor, intellectual and dense; why not just place this demeaning stereotype on the hard working folks in Oklahoma?
The scene for my film would be set in a mid-sized city in Oklahoma, such as Stillwater (without the college campus and large young population), in the year 2000. Not a great metropolis, but not a po-dunk town in hillbilly junction. Because of this locale, the action of the film could take place either in the outskirts of town, thus focusing on the natural beauty of the landscape, or in town for the linkage to humanity and other culture.

The lighting would be limited to complete natural lighting, indoors and out. The soundtrack would consist of cheesy elevator music (instrumentalized versions of Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and Dido with a healthy mix of Kenny G); when the two lovers meet for the first time, the almost unbearable motif of "Always" by Bon Jovi played on a xylophone and bell harmonics can be heard. The passion in the song plays up their affair, setting it apart from the other softer hits and symbolizing the mundaneness of life without intensity. The selection of music is so poignant is because all of the songs are played live from the wife’s tapeplayer/radio that sits at the counter where she is most of the day, and are not dubbed over after the film has been shot. This adds to the live, on-location shooting where the unexpected happens.

When the protagonist pulls into the outskirts of town (we will call it Stilly for short, just to solidify the correct interpretation of the size of the town in relation to everyone’s experience), he stops at the first car dealership he sees. It looks dilapidated and run down, but the "open" sign draws him in. It is summer and he is looking for a sucker. The camera angles are intense and full of signifiers revealing the status of the protagonist and the couple he runs upon. The camera only pans and tilts when he moves, allowing the steady flow of details to flood the screen. The camera is primarily stationary during most of the dialogue, focusing mostly on the characters in a medium shot and sometimes zooming to a close-up during very intense moments.

The protagonist stays to help the rather obese, sweaty man who seems to run this dump. He promises to help sell him cars, but tonight is the owner’s treat of dinner and a place to stay. Bordering the car dealership is a one-story crumbling white plaster motel that the man owns, but his wife runs. She is beautiful, but tired looking from the years of boredom that her husband has given her. Instantly, there is a love connection. The husband is unaware of the sexual intensity going on between this traveler and his wife, he is so focused on money.

The rest of the film plays out similar to Ossessione, scarring the town of Stilly with murders of intent and accident.




an italian neo-realist in a hot dog suit?
response by L'OMBRE DU FANTÔME

Keeping with the spirit of the Italian Neo-realist idea of natural people in their natural settings, placing a remake of Ossessione in Oklahoma would not be a difficult feat. For starters, the opening sequence of Ossessione depicts a rustic Italy countryside not so far off from typical Oklahoma countryside. Classic Italian music is heard as they pull up to the gas station. Imagine the titles rolling over a view of the country from the perspective of an old Ford pickup, a gust of wind produces a fog of dust, and as a gruff cowboy jumps out of the bed and thanks the driver for the ride while the twang of country music can be heard from the cab. This epitomizes simple Oklahoma country life, perhaps on one of the old highways on the way into town. It is simple people doing what they do, creating a false real reality. The filming of this would not be difficult because coming across a typical, middle of nowhere, gas station/diner/rest stop on the roads of Oklahoma is not uncommon. This on-location type filming adds to the "realness" of the neo-realist filmstyle.

Another sequence of Ossessione that would be perfect to remake for an Oklahoma setting involves Bragana and Giovanna meeting Gino at the public market place where he is a walking billboard. From there they take Gino to a nearby bar where Bragana involves himself in a singing contest. Replace the public square with a farmer’s marker or sidewalk type sale and place Gino a hotdog costume (or perhaps the hideously insane looking breadstick costume that wanders the sidewalks in front of Little Caesar's) and you are not far off from the modern display of crass advertising that exists all over America today. As for the bar in which Bragana sings, replace it with a typical country dive and toss in a karaoke machine, a couple of beers, and still have Bragana making an ass out of himself and you’ve got the small town night life of Oklahoma wrapped up nicely.

The simple things that people do in everyday life are not of much amusement for the narrative of a film, but when depicted in such a glorified way as the neo-realists do, anything can be beautiful, even a grown man in a hotdog suit. It is viewing these simplistic, mundane actions as the beauty of real life that constitutes neo-realism. Converting 1940’s rustic Italy into modern day Oklahoma should not be that difficult considering the basis of neo-realism relies on ordinary life, not extraordinary, and when you get right down to it, even crossing decades and oceans doesn’t change the basics of human nature that much.

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